## I. The City of Bloody Steps
Orpheus's journey required a strategic stop in **Soul**, the first major metropolis outside the direct domains of the Red Continent. With about thirty thousand inhabitants, Soul was a geographical anomaly: the mist of the Void, which devoured neighboring lands, did not dare touch its walls. The city was protected by a colossal crystal embedded in its center, which emanated a perpetual light and sustained an invisible barrier—a dome of purity in a world of shadows.
However, Soul's beauty was a cruel mask.
Orpheus walked through streets paved with red and black gravel—sharp stones that seemed designed to punish. For those not wearing reinforced leather boots, every step was a penance. The ground was marked by trails of dried blood left by slaves and beggars who dragged themselves barefoot, the soles of their feet turned into raw flesh. Along the sidewalks, mutilated figures and men with severe disabilities begged for a mercy the city did not know.
In the center of the main square stood the **"Scream of Pain"** fountain. Built over the deepest well in the region to distribute water, it had been adorned with magnificent statues to enchant tourists. But the reality was grim: the well had become a ritual site for the desperate. Daily, inhabitants jumped into the hole in the hope that the fall would bring them the final relief of death.
The city was the fiefdom of a man known as **Plata**, a world-renowned hunter who had turned Soul into the largest slave trade hub on the continent. There, lives were tools, traded among nobles, military men, and businessmen seeking pleasure and control.
Orpheus, hidden under his brown cloak, observed everything with silent disdain. He noted names in his notebook, mapping the local rot:* **Noble Silvio:** From Lunares. Estimated fortune of 10 million. A man who bought silence with gold.* **Zob:** Daughter of General Kramber, the most powerful man in the Kingdom of Luna. Her face was as beautiful as cotton, eyes blue as crystals, and white hair like an angel's. But her smile... her smile was that of a monster.
Seeing Zob parading in her immaculate white clothes, Orpheus felt a bitter taste in his mouth. He remembered her. At twelve, when Orpheus was a slave in the Kingdom of Luna, he had seen her smile while children fought to the death in mud arenas for the entertainment of the military and King Violet Don. She was a sadist who hid her nature under a facade of purity.
In that moment of hatred, Orpheus closed his eyes and whispered a prayer. He thanked the heavens for **Afonso**, the friend and brother who had helped him survive those dark days before being rescued by Zack.
## II. The Miracle Hunter
For five days, Orpheus remained in Soul. He noticed that security was heavy; Rank A and B hunters patrolled the streets, exuding their auras with full force to intimidate any dissenters. But amidst this display of power, Orpheus noticed something different.
There was a hunter—or rather, a hidden figure—with strange mannerisms. This person observed the environment not with arrogance, but with a desperate caution, as if planning an escape or searching for someone. Orpheus initially thought it was just a novice seeking fame, someone who would die the moment they tried to sit at the adults' table.
Bored and bothered by the lack of love for others in that city, Orpheus decided to follow the stranger.
Orpheus's ritual became simple: he would buy a ham sandwich, sit at a distance, and watch while he ate. What he saw, however, began to weigh on his conscience. The mysterious hunter was not hunting. They were healing.
Orpheus saw the stranger give food and water to the hungry. He saw them talk to the outcasts and, most impressively, saw them at the "Scream of Pain" fountain, physically preventing suicides from jumping. Under that figure's touch, legless children walked again, the blind regained their sight, and malnourished men felt vigor return to their bodies.
It was unthinkable. Orpheus realized that this "novice" was, in fact, a walking miracle. And comparing himself to them, Orpheus felt like a monster. He, who had been saved from slavery by Zack, had spent the last few days merely laughing at others' misfortune.
## III. Bilua
One night, driven by a frustration he couldn't explain, Orpheus followed the figure to an abandoned house on the outskirts of the city. He entered through the window silently and stopped, paralyzed by what he saw.
In the center of the room, sitting on the edge of an old bed, was a woman. She wore only white underwear, stained with fresh blood. Her body was covered in wound marks: deep cuts, purple bruises, and hematomas that seemed to pulse. Low moans of pain escaped her lips. Her hair was black, short to the shoulder, and her eyes... her eyes were black and deep, identical to those of his master, Zack.
She looked at Orpheus with a tired face, marked by a scar that cut from her mouth to her eye.
— What did you come here for, Hunter? — she asked, her voice weak but firm.
Orpheus was surprised. Wasn't he hiding his aura? How did she know?
— How do you know what I am? — he questioned.
— I took too many risks... sooner or later someone like you would show up to finish the job — she replied, ignoring her own pain.
Orpheus pointed to her wounds.— Why don't you heal yourself? With the power I saw you use in the city, these wounds should vanish in seconds.
The woman gave a sad smile.— I cannot heal what I chose to carry. I don't heal people, Hunter. I only trade their pain for mine. I take their suffering so they can live.
The silence that followed was overwhelming. Orpheus remembered Zack, how he had been saved, and how he himself had lost his way, forgetting that the purpose of his strength should be to protect, not just to observe.
— Why do you do this? — Orpheus asked, stepping closer.
She didn't answer. She just closed her eyes, waiting for the final blow.— Just finish it already.
— What is your name? — Orpheus insisted, his voice now charged with a different energy.
He approached and looked deeply into those black eyes. Bilua felt something she had never felt before. A red aura began to emanate from Orpheus—it wasn't the aura of a killer, but something warm, alive, full of hope and will. It was a heat that seemed to embrace her tired soul.
— My name is Bilua — she whispered.
— It's a beautiful name — Orpheus said, giving a genuine smile.
In the blink of an eye, he vanished.
## IIV. The Bath in the Fountain
Bilua woke up the next morning feeling strangely invigorated. Her wounds had healed during her sleep, and her body felt ready for another day of sacrifice. She didn't question who that man was; her mind was focused on the people of Soul who still needed her.
She walked toward the city center, preparing to see the usual horror. But as she crossed the inner gates, the scene was different.
There were no slave traders. No nobles parading. No guards.
The heads of Plata, Silvio, and Zob were impaled on wooden stakes at the entrance of the square. The military lay dead at their posts, and the hired hunters had been struck down with surgical precision. The city of monsters had been decapitated in a single night.
Bilua ran to the "Scream of Pain" fountain. The crystal-clear water now caught her attention, but at the bottom, the blood of tyrants spread, staining the depths crimson.
There, **inside the fountain**, was Orpheus. He was completely immersed in the cold water, washing his body with a disturbing calm. His red hair floated on the surface as he scrubbed his skin, removing the blood of those he had decimated. The water around him turned pink as the grime of the massacre detached from him.
It was there that Bilua and Orpheus looked at each other. He, inside the fountain, purifying himself of the spilled blood; she, on the edge, witnessing the freedom he had bought with violence. In that moment, a deep connection emerged—an exchange of souls and a silent sharing of information. There, between the blood and the water, a love at first sight was born that would change their destinies forever.
**END OF CHAPTER**